Republican Universalism and the Intersectional Othering and Oppression of Ethnic Minority Women in the Novels of Marie NDiaye and Linda Lê

Abstract

This thesis offers the first comparison of Marie NDiaye and Linda Lê’s novels and, in particular, their portrayals of ethnic minority women in France in relation to republican universalism. It examines how the authors’ ethnic minority female characters face racist and sexist discrimination and oppression in French society even though it prides itself upon being the home of universal human rights. By applying an original intersectional framework based on the works of Sara Ahmed to a selection of Lê and NDiaye’s works, this research demonstrates, firstly, that such divisions and inequalities are linked to the way the characters are reductively racialised and gendered, and, secondly, how this is a legacy of French colonialism. Additionally, it illuminates how this intersectional othering and oppression do not occur just in spite of republican universalism and its promises of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, but are often channelled and concealed through its discourses, especially those of abstraction and integration. It exposes the complex and self-perpetuating nature of the power relations depicted as the protagonists internalise, and consequently become complicit with, unequal social hierarchies. In light of how NDiaye and Lê elucidate this process, employing literary tools such as imagery, allegory, intertextuality and the fantastic, this thesis argues that their novels stimulate an intersectional feminist consciousness. This is a consciousness of not only the experiences of ethnic minority women in France but also how these are imbricated in broader power structures and is therefore central to our ability to seek out new avenues and futures in which Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité can be universally enacted. This thesis thus contributes to the fields of feminist and postcolonial studies as well as to knowledge on the authors works’ specifically by shedding light on how republican universalist discourses can conceal and perpetuate discrimination and inequality in French society and how literature can explore and challenge this issue.

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ORCID for Aude Campmas: orcid.org/0000-0001-6662-2476

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